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“I thought you were against humans bonding with faeries.” I take both of his hands in mine. “I trust you.”
She places a matching emerald necklace around my neck. “Also from the prince,” she says.
Before I can change my mind, I reach for an oblong alabaster stone. The moment my fingers touch it, the rest disappear. I turn it in my palm to study the symbol. One long, thick line stretches from top to bottom of the longest side of the stone, another line angles off it to the right, and a swirl crosses the middle.
“This symbol can mean sorrow and loss.” He clasps his hand over mine, pressing the stone tight between our palms. “But it can also mean rebirth after those things. New beginnings, like you said.”
“Prince Ronan Sebastian,” I say, repeating the vows as I was instructed. “I bond my life to yours. I will feel your joy and know your pain. Near or far, we will always be close in heart, connected in spirit.”
Then it’s there—a connection between us, something snapping and electric, a power pumping through me to him in an infinite loop.
The world flashes—bright with the sunset coming in from the balcony, then the comforting darkness of unconsciousness. Light, dark, light, dark.
Next time she dies, it has to be during a bonding ceremony. I see three paths before you. In each, the Banshee’s call is clear.
“Died and were born anew. You’re sleeping now. The metamorphosis . . . it is never easy, but your mortal flesh fought it harder than most.” Because I never wanted to be fae.
“After you left my catacombs, I had Pretha get you back to the Golden Palace. I knew you wouldn’t go with us, but I couldn’t leave you alone and bleeding in the Wild Fae Lands.”
“I am sorry—for what it’s worth. I never expected . . .” He squeezes the back of his neck. “I tried to find a way out of involving you. Even after your mother’s protection ran out and I knew where to find you, I searched for a way. I saw you in a cellar, saw you work until your fingers were bloody, paying your debts and caring for your sister. I searched and searched for another way. My father put me in an impossible position when he gave his crown to a mortal girl.”
“Do you hate him for it?” His lips twist into a semblance of a smile. “I did once.” His gaze flicks to mine. “Before I knew you.”
“That no matter how hopeless I feel, there’s always a little more hope inside me. That no matter how faithless I think I am, there is always something to believe in.”
“May you always have a star to wish on, Abriella, and a reason to believe.”
“There is no cost now that the curse has been lifted, but it’s not my power that brought us here. I’m not using my magic.” “Then how?” “You’re using yours.” Then he disappears, and the dream fades to nothing.
Sebastian’s sudden appearance in my life two years ago. He moved in next door and charmed me from his first smile. Seven years after my mother left. Almost to the day.
The potion. The potion Sebastian had with him. The one he somehow knew he’d need.
“Oh, Prince Ronan will hate that he’s missing her first look at the world through her fae eyes.” Emmaline says, practically squealing. “Someone send for him.”
How did Sebastian know I’d have that reaction to the bond? He knew the bond would kill me. He knew he’d have to make me fae or lose me forever.
Emmaline and Tess aren’t the women I knew. They’re faeries, with pointed ears, glowing skin, green vines tattooed down their arms. “You aren’t human?” “The prince had us glamoured,” Emmaline says. “To make you more comfortable.”
“No, no, milady. The queen is well. Prince Ronan will take the Throne of Shadows.”
Oberon’s crown would have shifted to Sebastian when I died, but . . . “I don’t understand. I thought only a fae with royal Unseelie blood could take the Throne of Shadows.” “Yes, milady,” Tess says. “And Sebastian is both Seelie and Unseelie royalty.”
“But Prince Ronan is Oberon’s blood. Conceived in the mortal world during the eclipse, our prince brings day and night together. Light and dark. He is the new king who has been raised to unite our kingdoms.”
He’s Unseelie, and he knew I’d die when I bonded with him. He knew I’d have no choice but to take the Potion of Life, even though I never wanted to be a faerie.
“He and his mother have searched long and hard for his father’s crown. Then he found you.”
Queen to a male who appeared in my life right after my mother’s protection ran out. To a male who’s been planning for years to trick me out of the Unseelie crown. A male who stole my power and lied to me about his own.
Sebastian may have the crown, but somehow this power—the power that came with Oberon’s life, with his crown—it remains my own. Magic is life. Life is magic. Maybe in choosing to give me the Potion of Life, Sebastian unknowingly tied these powers to me.
The servants scramble for light. Someone calls for the sentinels in the hall, but I silence their screams, wrapping them in shadows. They expect me to dress pretty and show up to be his queen. I am not a pretty thing to be manipulated. I am darkness, and the power rushing through my veins is stronger than ever. This is what it’s like to be fae and have magic. Magic is life.
I walk past Riaan and the royal guard as they command light to fill the halls. I walk and watch their magic fail next to the might of mine. Rage pulses through my blood, demanding vengeance, retribution.
In the darkness I’ve cast upon the palace, the crown of twinkling starlight is visible atop his silver-blond hair. I see him more clearly now than ever, and I stare at the tattoos on his chest and neck. Dozens of rune tattoos I’ve never seen before. Another glamour. Another way to deceive the human.
I am shadow and darkness and stronger than the girl he sacrificed for that crown.
But he can’t make me stop. And he can’t keep me from walking away from the Golden Palace with nothing but my darkness and the betrayal that has wrapped itself around my immortal heart.
